July 28th, 1980
"You know, you'd have more room if you'd just. Come. Out." James grumbled, looking down at his stomach as their child once again kicked his ribs, pushing their head into his bladder.
He sighed, leaning back on the couch as he rubbed circles on his stomach. He was done being pregnant. Had been for several weeks now.
July 29th, 1980
"Would you want to be godmother?"
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Then, I would love to." Alice told Lily with a soft smile. She knew she wasn't their first choice, no that would have been Marlene. Nonetheless, Alice was honored to have even been considered.
July 30th, 1980
"Remind me again, why we offered to host this?" James asked, as they cleaned the flat together.
"Because it's my parents twenty-fifth anniversary." Lily answered, "Petunia wanted to do something at Mum and Dads house, but you, sir, are not supposed to travel that far right now."
"…you could have gone without me."
Lily turned the vacuum off and turned to stare at him. "Okay, one, I'm not leaving overnight right now unless absolutely necessary, that baby could come any day now. Two, don't think I don't know what you're saying, if I have to be around my sister for something like this, so do you."
"So, no escaping to Remus and Sirius', then?"
"Nope."
"Dammit."
xXx
"What time do you want us there tomorrow?"
"Well… Petunia and Vernon will be here around five, so…" Lily said into the phone, trailing off.
"Five, got it." Rosalie said, "We'll pay you back for the hotel rooms."
"No, you won't."
"Lily, you don't need to be paying for hotel rooms right now."
"Money's not a problem Mum, really." Lily argued an old argument. She never told her an exact number, but she wasn't shy to reassure her mother that they were indeed very financially stable.
"You have a baby coming any day now, that little one might even decide to come while we're there."
"Hmmm." Lily hummed slightly doubtful, "We'll see."
July 31st, 1980
"I am not dressing up today."
Lily looked at the T-shirt and sweatpants her husband was wearing, as he walked into the kitchen, "Could you at least wear your jeans and button up?" she asked, before she shoved another spoonful of her cereal into her mouth.
"I… can do jeans closer to when your family's supposed to get here?"
"Fair enough." She wasn't going to push the shirt, at least jeans and a T-shirt would be somewhat close to the jeans and button ups that her dad and Vernon would undoubtedly be wearing. She knew that while he had one button up that still fit him, it wasn't at all comfortable for him anymore. She also knew that he had been having contractions since early that morning, no matter how weak they were, it couldn't be very fun to experience. Though neither they nor Ethan expected anything to come from them anytime soon, due to how weak and sporadic they were.
xXx
"That baby's coming while we're there." Rosalie stated as she and Harrison loaded their car with a week's worth of luggage for one night.
Harrison looked at her from the corner of his eye. "We're only supposed to be there a night."
"So? We have two daughters, Harrison, you know something like this can go from zero to one hundred in a matter of minutes."
xXx
Petunia sat on the very edge of her seat, looking around the tiny flat in disdain, tuning out her parents gushing to Lily about this and that as Petunia fed Dudley his bottle.
The flat was… decorative, that's for sure. The brown couch she sat on was obviously second hand, as well as the plush brown rocking chair that obviously went with the couch. The white end tables and matching coffee table had obviously been repainted with apparent brush strokes in the paint.
The dining table (The dining room was actually part of the living room!) and chairs were a nice dark oak but the top of the table had a large burn mark on it.
In fact, the only thing in the room that looked new was the large red armchair tucked into the corner of the room. Petunia carefully eyed the big black dog curled up in it staring back at her.
Petunia would be disappointed, if she hadn't already known Lily to be lying about their wealth. Looking around the room, if she had to guess, they bought all the furniture at yard sales (they had, not because they couldn't afford new, but because it helped the sellers of said furniture without seeming like complete handouts.)
There were several pictures on the walls, but the ones that stood out most were the three above the fireplace. A large portrait of her sister and brother-in-law and their entire wedding party, and a smaller picture on either side. One Petunia could recognize as Rosalie and Harrison's wedding, and the other an even older photo of a couple's wedding she didn't recognize, but assumed they were Mr. and Mrs. Potter.
Vernon stomped over to the couch, his footsteps rattling the pictures on the walls, and ungracefully threw himself back onto the couch which made a creaking sound drawing everyone's eyes over to them. Petunia could have died of embarrassment then and there.
"You break it you buy it." Lily spoke up, eyebrows raising.
Maybe she already had and this was embarrassment Hell, because it sure as hell wasn't Heaven.
xXx
"You okay?" Lily asked James when they went to the kitchen to clean up. It was just after nine in the evening and Petunia and Vernon had just left for their hotel. Rosalie and Harrison had been banned to the living room. "You've been pretty quiet the last couple hours."
"I'm fi-" he cut off with a pained grimace, leaning against the counter. "Fine. That actually went a lot better than I thought it would." He added, still bent over, bracing
himself against the counter with both hands. "Padfoot only had to growl twice."
"How far apart are they?" Lily asked quietly, placing a comforting hand on his back.
"Hm?"
"Contractions." Lily clarified. "How far apart are they?"
"Uh." He stood straight hands on his back, as he looked at her. "I don't know. Five minutes?"
"How long are they?" Lily questioned.
"Minute."
Lily squinted up at him, tilting her head to the side. "And how long have they been… five minutes apart and one minute long?" she questioned again.
"Hour fifteen?"
Lily sighed, closing her eyes briefly.
"Saint Mungoes?"
"Ethan wants us to call Saint Mungoes right about now, yeah." Lily confirmed, moving over to the phone and dialing the number for Saint Mungoes labor and delivery ward.
xXx
"So, we've hit a bit of a roadblock." Lily said, hanging up the phone after a couple minutes and turning to her husband.
"What do you mean. Roadblock?!" James asked shrilly, as another, more painful contraction came on. He was never doing this again.
"I don't know! Something about the labor and delivery ward being closed because… apparently You-Know-Who and his followers are staked out by the doors of the labor and delivery ward."
James gave a pained, disbelieving laugh. "What?" He was never doing this again. Screw having a big family.
"I have no idea. But I called Lucy, we're going to go to her clinic instead, at least until they have… that… infestation figured out."
"Does she know about…"
"She knows about magic." Lily confirmed. "And she knows Ethan. But her clinic's a little over an hour away. So, we need to be leaving."
"I thought you worked with her?"
"Yes, but that's at the hospital, not her clinic."
"Everything okay in here?" Rosalie asked, from where she and Harrison came to stand in the doorway.
"Yeah, Mum," Lily reassured. "Just… This baby's probably going to be coming tonight." She said, sounding as if she was just now realizing.
"Really?" Rosalie asked, eyes lighting up as she whirled to face Harrison.
"Yeah." James confirmed, nodding slightly, looking to Lily. "Which is why we really need to be going."
"Right! Right, we'll take the Oldsmobile, it already has everything in it." Lily said, rushing around to grab shoes and her keys.
"Could we follow?" Rosalie asked, grabbing her purse.
"Yeah, sure. If you want to. Padfoot, com'n."
xXx
"What did I tell you?" Rosalie asked, turning to look at her husband as he drove closely behind their daughter.
"Yeah, yeah." Harrison muttered. "At least I didn't bet on it this time."
xXx
It was after 10:30 by the time they made it there. Lucy was waiting for them outside, the abandoned look of the parking lot, and the fact that she was in sweats and a T-shirt, telling them that she had already closed up shop for the day when Lily had called.
She waited until they were parked, before walking to James' side of the car and opening the door as Harrison parked on the other side of the Oldsmobile.
"You ready to do this thing?" Lucy asked, bending at the waist to look into the car. He held up a finger, head down, as he rode out a contraction. "Alright, that's okay. We can wait a minute. Just let me know when you're ready." She said as Lily and Sirius got out of the car and came around to the passenger side. Rosalie did a double
take at the man, wondering where he came from and where the dog had gone. It only took her a moment to put two and two together.
"Okay." He said at last, looking up at Lucy.
"Let's get you inside then, hun." She said, helping him up and out of the car and into the clinic.
It was a small homey building, you walk in and you're immediately in a waiting area with a couch, loveseat and two chairs. To the right were two suites, nearly identical with queen size beds, large black rocking chairs and a crib, both rooms had very little medical equipment.
"We'll just go to the first room on the right there." Lucy said, pointing to the room. She and Lily helped James sit carefully on the edge of the bed. Lucy grabbed a bundle of cloth and set it on the bed. "Hospital gown. Put it on, and while you're doing that, I'll call Ethan and let him know you made it here." And ask again if the Labor and Delivery ward was still on lockdown. She hoped her brother could make it there in time to assist in this birth, but if Ethan couldn't Lucy at least knew the theory, and that was better than nothing. She knew the theory, and she also knew that bearer births could be extremely dangerous as well.
"My husband's in the back room, if you hear him moving around don't let it bother you." Lucy said to the waiting room at large as she shut the bedroom door, he hadn't wanted her to come alone so late so he had decided to come with her.
xXx
"Can't they just let you out?"
"We're working on that right now, Luce." Ethan sighed into the phone. "It's looking like it'll be around an hour."
"We don't have an hour!" Lucy hissed, glancing at the clock. It was only just past eleven, they had been here not even forty-five minutes, but, "This baby's ready to come now." She added. "I've never done this before."
"I know. I know. You'll be okay, you may not have any practical experience-"
"That's exactly why I'm worried!" she whispered furiously into the phone.
"-but you have read the same textbooks I learned out of. That counts as something."
"You're really not all that reassuring."
"I'm trying my best, okay." He deadpanned, "Now go in there, try your best, and help deliver that baby. I'll be there as soon as I can."
xXx
"You need to push."
James felt Lily and Rosalie supporting his back, their free hands gripped tightly in his, his feet braced against Sirius and Harrison's shoulders as he bore down.
"Good. Good. And now again." Lucy said, glancing up and seeing him shake his head slightly, "Come on, you can do it. You are doing it, we have a head full of black hair already."
xXx
"One more big push. One more and you'll be done."
He did, letting out a sob as it felt as though his body were being split in two. The pressure he hadn't even realized he had felt until then, letting up.
"It's a boy!" Lucy announced immediately, as she started clearing the babe's, their son's, airway. James felt Lily and Rosalie slowly lean him back against the pillows on the bed, as he started trembling.
A loud wail filled the room, breaking the tense silence that had fallen, and causing the room as a whole to breathe a sigh of relief. "There we go." Lucy cooed. "Should we go to Daddy? He worked long and hard to get you here." She asked, gently placing the newborn in his father's arms.
Lily made eye contact with her husband before carefully climbing onto the bed beside him, laying her hand on his arm, a sob escaping her as she stared at their child in wonder.
James took back his many 'never again's'. He would do this one thousand and one more times if he could. "Welcome to the world, Harry James."